What Will You Be Wearing?
by JadeHo
Summary: With an important function looming ahead of them, Steve Rogers engages in an awkward attempt at flirting with Darcy Lewis. (pre-Darcy Lewis/Steve Rogers relationship) Takes place after The Winter Soldier and before Age of Ultron.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** Okay, so this is just a little something inspired by (okay, stolen from) an episode of West Wing. Basically, it was an awkward exchange between Danny and CJ that I love, and when I was rewatching the episode, it screamed for some awkward Darcy and Steve to step into their shoes.

 **What Will You Be Wearing?**

Darcy Lewis was very tired.

When SHIELD had rolled back out of New Mexico after Thor's appearance, battle with his brother, and prolonged disappearance, they'd buried Dr. Jane Foster under a stack of NDAs the size of, well, New Mexico. Or so it had seemed to her trusty intern, Darcy Lewis who only needed the science credits from her internship to graduate with her degree in Political Science.

By the time the paperwork was all sorted out, Jane was a mess, and Darcy had been torn about leaving her. Then Jane had promised that the new direction of her research was different enough that SHIELD wouldn't be able to claim publishing it violated any of the NDAs. If Darcy agreed to stay on for another semester, Jane would be able to get her the required science credits. In exchange, Dr. Foster agreed to house Darcy with her in her mother's flat in London while they conducted the research. And to reimburse Darcy for Pop-Tarts. Especially in the event that Thor came back and started eating them.

For a while it had looked like Thor wasn't coming back, but also that Jane might just make the end of the semester without drawing SHIELD's attention and Darcy would get her credits. But before Darcy could count all her chickens, SHIELD shipped them off involuntarily to Tromso.

After the rest of the world found out aliens were real and both Thor and Loki were MIA once more, Jane and Darcy were returned to London. Of course, they had to start over again with their research going in a new direction, but it still sounded better than taking an actual science class to Darcy.

Then Jane had been taken into an alternate dimension or some such, touched something she ought not have, and brought Thor back with her. Cue evil elf attack which was swiftly followed by another round of SHIELD NDA negotiations.

Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you looked at it), SHIELD was revealed to be largely overrun by HYDRA before those negotiations finished and the paperwork became a moot point. Sort of. In that all the NDAs and supporting documents of previously signed agreements had been leaked over the internet and were therefore not really valid, and there was no SHIELD around to even negotiate with on the newer stuff.

The flip side, however, was that Jane and Darcy became targets almost instantly, being pulled out of the fray by one Hawkeye, AKA Clint Barton, as SHIELD literally and figuratively went down in a pile of flames. Once the dust had settled, Jane had been able to pull the right strings to get Darcy her credits, but there were a lot of people who knew by then that Darcy was a good way to get to Jane. The world wasn't really a safe place for either of them anymore.

So in stepped Tony Stark and the rest of the Avengers. They hired up Jane, moved her into Avengers Tower, and happily brought Darcy along as well. Initially they'd planned to just have Darcy continue what she had been doing, but she'd also have an apartment in the Tower and probably keep an eye on more scientists than just Jane in exchange for what they called a meager salary and Darcy called "more money than I'm getting as a Political Science major for at least a decade."

Before long, however, Pepper Potts, CEO of Stark Industries had found out about said degree as well as Darcy's ability to reign in Tony Stark without any real effort on her part. Once Pepper was made aware of the gem that was Darcy, well, she'd forced the others to allow Darcy's job description to change. Almost overnight, Darcy Lewis had become the Avengers' Press Secretary. She had a small staff, and she was tasked with advising the Avengers on how to deal with news and social media to best maintain a good public image.

And that was why Darcy Lewis was very tired. The Avengers didn't only get into trouble from nine to five, and they certainly didn't seem to get into trouble on convenient days. There had been a problem of a small, Avengers-caused explosion. And because Hawkeye liked to think that he was soooooooo funny, he'd called it a "freak gasoline fight accident." That had been at two in the morning on the night before a very important Avengers fundraiser and gala designed to not only raise money for the team and their inevitable financial contributions to rebuilding cities and small countries, but it was also intended to provide a platform for them to garner political support as they were no longer operating under any kind of oversight or council.

So starting at two in the morning, Darcy had been trying to pull Barton's foot out of his mouth (and if she had her way, shove it up his ass or beat him with it), and the day had just gone downhill from there. Even when her small staff arrived to work for the day, things hadn't slowed down for Darcy. Surprisingly it seemed that the majority of the questions she was asked weren't even about the previous night's incident or how the public was supposed to trust the Avengers when they did things like confiscate weapons of mass destruction. No, she kept having to answer questions about what kind of jewelry Pepper Potts would be wearing or what shoes Natasha would don.

At the end of her somewhat regular press-briefing, Darcy was just glad that she hadn't stabbed a reporter or let slip that Natasha's peep-toe Louboutin's were actually custom made to fit way more weapons and firepower than any normal person would have thought possible. In fact, she could probably take out the entire press room with the explosives she carried in those puppies, and wasn't that a tempting thought?

Still, Darcy held her tongue and did the job she was paid not nearly enough (and still an obscene sum) to do and made it out of the room with her still fresh and unbelievably fragile professional reputation intact. One of these days, those reporters would begin to realize that Darcy Lewis knew her shit.

Immediately after her meeting with the press, Darcy sat in on the daily Avengers meeting. The exact agenda for these meetings, at which she was always welcome, varied. Some days it was mostly finishing up mission debrief, and others they sat around bad mouthing each other lightheartedly, apparently feeling no great need to be overly productive. On the day of a large public function, however, the primary purpose was for Darcy to run through the questions she anticipated them receiving and coaching them until she was confident that they'd stay relatively on point. If that meant Natasha snapping and threatening Darcy with a weapon when she asked about what she wore under her uniform, well, better Darcy than a reporter. Plus, Steve, no wait, Captain America was sitting next to her, and he wouldn't let Natasha _actually_ hurt Darcy.

Somehow Darcy made it through the meeting without too much incident and in only two and a half hours. She hadn't even embarrassed herself in front of said Patriotic Avenger, even though she'd been sitting next to his deliciously distracting presence the whole time. At one point, his leg had brushed hers, and she'd turned so red that she'd had to pretend she'd accidentally bitten her tongue to give a plausible reason for her flush or risk Bruce rushing her off to medical.

Okay, that actually had been a bit embarrassing, but it was better than saying that she'd flushed because Steve Rogers had touched her, he was hot, and she hadn't had sex in a really, really long time. Way better than saying that, in fact.

See, Steve did this thing where he was perpetually bad with women in a totally adorkable way, and Darcy had to constantly remind herself that he wasn't trying to flirt with her. He just didn't have much experience talking to females and they made him nervous because he was still a sick, skinny kid that nobody looked twice at on the inside. And that certainly didn't make her want to just pet him and love him and hug him and squeeze him all up!

It didn't!

Darcy Lewis was a professional now, and she could put a firm lid on her surely unrequited and definitely inappropriate feelings toward (*cough* the hottest man on the face of the earth *cough*) her coworker. They ended the meeting with her verifying that everyone was going to be dressed appropriately, and that THEY knew who they were wearing in case asked.

"Sorry about earlier," Natasha murmured to Darcy as she passed by where Darcy had rested her head on the table in front of her when Steve announced that the meeting was over.

Tiredly, Darcy waved a hand absently over her head and mumbled, "no, I get you. It's ridiculous that they only ask you and Pepper those questions. And that they never ask you anything meaty either. They're idiots, the lot of them."

Once the sound of footsteps leaving the room ended, Darcy allowed herself one small moment to sigh and dream of going home early and taking a nap then sitting on her couch to watch Netflix and eat ice cream all night instead of cramming herself into a dress and a corset so tight she wouldn't be able to eat a damn thing. When a warm hand gently landed on her shoulder, she squeaked and jumped in her seat.

Eyes wide, Darcy spun her chair to see that Steve hadn't been among those who had walked out of the room earlier and was, in fact, still sitting next to her. If anything, he'd managed to scoot himself closer without making a sound.

"Don't think I don't know that you egg them on, you giant troll you," Darcy teased, trying to let out some of her tension at finding herself alone in a room with Steve again. Something that she felt like had been happening more and more lately.

The twinkle in Steve's eyes told her that he was indeed guilty of that, but wasn't going to actually admit to it at the moment. When he opened his mouth, Darcy was expecting a witty retort of some kind which she would later claim was the whole reason it took her so long to respond. And no, she definitely didn't stammer. Or flush.

"And what will you be wearing?" Steve asked.

"I.. what? Me? Why do the Avengers want to know what I'm wearing?" Darcy pushed out.

"Not for the Avengers, just for me," Steve informed her as though it was completely normal.

"You want to know what I'm wearing?" Darcy asked incredulously.

"Yeah," Steve confirmed.

There were several beats of silence as Darcy opened and closed her mouth completely perplexed. "Well," she finally started slowly. "I'll be wearing an evening gown. In… uh… black lacey stuff. From a vintage store I found."

"Okay, well, I'll be looking forward to it," Steve said standing.

"Okay," Darcy replied, still confounded. "Well, I've got to take one more look at this speech that Tony's going to be giving to make sure it's ready to go."

She gestured at the tablet in front of her, and Steve offered her a big smile.

"Okay," he said before walking out the door.

Darcy waited, watching the door he'd disappeared through for a full minute to make sure he was actually gone before she thunked her head down on the table in front of her once more and mumbled, "what. even. was. that?"


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: After some clamoring over on AO3, I wrote another chapter for you all. Enjoy!

* * *

Darcy Lewis was hungry.

Galas thrown by Stark, as the Avengers gala had been "for tax reasons," had no shortage of food. In fact, once people successful made it through the spectacle that was the red carpet to get inside, they were greeted with freely flowing food and booze in the form of passed finger foods and champagne.

After sufficient mingling and getting tipsy time had gone by, guests were moved into a ballroom where they were given more food and the run of an open bar. If there were speeches to be made, Tony insisted they happen no earlier than the second course.

Of course, Darcy hadn't made it to that point. She hadn't made it to the first course or even to her seat, though she had noticed that her assigned table had been switched by someone. Instead, she'd mingled, grabbed a couple hors d'oeuvres and then had to cram them into her mouth unceremoniously as she began putting out fires.

Non-literal fires. That was about all the situation had going for it.

First there were medics who had to be rallied to deal with the injured party. Then there the rest of the wait staff and their supervisor had to be assured that it was an isolated incident so that they'd continue to work. And then there'd been reporters to charm and bribe for their photos and footage. That one had probably been a losing battle, but a lady had to try.

And _her_ ladies had helped. Still, the story was going to break, so Darcy had grumbled under her breath about missing the party she hadn't even really wanted to go to as she rode the elevator up to her office.

" _Arrows should never be used to shoot the 'last' crab cake from across the room by way of 'calling dibs.' Never,"_ Darcy typed into the text she saved on her computer to reuse for her team meetings before events. After careful consideration, she added, " _nor knives or any other weapon. If you are a trained spysassin, or have enhanced strength, your body counts as a weapon."_

Mumbling under her breath about how she'd "thought that was a given and were they raised by wolves?" Darcy saved that document and opened up her drive once more. She scanned through the files, trying to decide which forms she needed to fill out in triplicate- a copy for her, one for Steve, and one for Maria Hill.

She made her selection, and started typing. A rap on her door had her pausing in her next step just as she sent the papers to print- Steve and Maria both liked hard copies, and she had a ritual burning to do with her staff on Monday. (Doing so gets rid of the bad joo joo.) Holding up a finger, she didn't even look to see who it was.

Instead, she took just a little bit of joy out of opening up a new message to Barton and attaching a file to a firmly worded email. She cackled with delight as she hit send. When she looked up, Steve was leaning against the doorframe watching her with a look in his eyes she just couldn't identify.

"I came to make sure you weren't working too hard, and I find you're goofing around? This is your event, Miss Lewis," Steve said.

She was about 60% sure he was joking. It was enough to have her joking back, but it also left a heavy tone of uncertainty in her voice as she did.

"Oh, I was working," Darcy stammered. "I was just anticipating reading Clint's paperwork justifying the use of deadly force on a crab cake that should come in tomorrow."

Steve's eyes twinkled with laughter as he nodded solemnly, "after all, the crab was already dead. Defiling a corpse is technically illegal."

Darcy's eyes widened momentarily before she recognized his levity. Still she sighed as she turned in her seat to look up at Steve more comfortably. "Seriously though," she said after clearing her throat a moment of silence later. "This is two of his messes I've had to clean up today, and I have to take my revenge somehow."

Steve nodded in understanding before asking, "so, are you ready to get back out there?"

Darcy blew out a breath and told him, "I have to write a press release now that somehow makes it seem perfectly normal that a waiter was injured at an Avengers party because he passed out when an arrow struck the tray he was carrying and literally scared the piss out of him."

"Oh," Steve's confident bravado crumbled a little. "Well, you look beautiful."

"Uh, thanks," Darcy flushed and responded.

"I was looking forward to the evening and seeing you and…" Steve trailed off with his flush putting Darcy's to shame.

They were uncomfortably silent for a moment before Darcy finally said, "well, you saw me. And you've got to get back out there; it's your job. This is my job." She finished by jabbing a finger over her shoulder at the computer monitor. "Wouldn't want _my_ _boss_ to get angry."

Steve blinked at her for a full minute. "I'm not your boss," he finally reassured her.

"Oh, contraire," Darcy retorted. "I work for the Avengers, and you're their leader."

Steve was rubbing the back of his neck as he argued, "just in the field. I'm pretty sure when it comes to your work, you're the boss and I have to listen to your orders."

A chill went up Darcy's spine at the words, but she kept her mouth shut. A couple times she opened it, but couldn't come up with a way to respond. Finally she turned back to her computer.

"Haven't you been working since two this morning?" Steve asked a few minutes later.

Darcy startled because she assumed he'd made his way back to the party. Distractedly she told him, "yep!"

"If you're up here, what are you going to eat?"

"Is this you wondering or the Avengers?"

"I.. Uh… I don't… Either? Both? I just want to make sure you're okay."

"I promise to eat something before I crash," Darcy told him, holding up the Girl Scout promise hand sign she learned as a child, even though she was pretty sure he wouldn't know what that was. She stood and started ushering him back toward the elevator as she continued. "But I can't promise to go back to the party at this point. When I kicked off my shoes, that was pretty much guaranteed not to happen. Don't worry about me! You just go back to the party you were looking forward to so much. I'm sure there are plenty of hearts who will be broken if you disappear! Lots of ladies looking for a dance with the closest thing to a real life Prince Charming- only much hotter."

Steve was so confused by what he perceived to be an expertly crafted soft letdown followed by such compliments that he let her get him into the elevator. She gave him a wave and a big smile as the doors shut. In disgust, Steve thunked his head on the wall behind him.

When the doors opened once more, Natasha was standing there with a look of pity on her face.

"Went that well, huh?" She asked.

"Am I Darcy's boss? Do you think that's why she won't go out with me?" Steve responded with a question of his own.

"Not really, no. And have you ever _**actually**_ asked her out?" Natasha asked rhetorically. Deciding to take pity on him she shook her head and instructed, "next time you make telling her she's beautiful the first thing you do. Then you say you were looking forward to spending time _with_ _her_ , not just at the party. If she jokes about you being the boss, it's probably insecurity, and you remind her that she reports to the head of the Operations food chain, Maria Hill, and Maria Hill alone. Nothing she says or does to you that is personal can in any way affect her job security- Hill wouldn't stand for that. And instead of what sounds like asking if she's worked enough hours to file a complaint and whether or not she legally needs a break, you just ask her out to dinner. If you absolutely must qualify it, make it about wanting to spend time with her and not about authoritative concern. Acting like her supervisor does you no favors in that regard."

Then Natasha spun on her heel and strode away.

"Wait," Steve called after her. Do you have her office bugged?"

When Steve, as he could have predicted, didn't get a response, he made mental plans to burn everything he was wearing just in case he was bugged. And maybe have JARVIS run a scan on his body to check for implanted devices...


	3. Chapter 3

Steve Rogers was frustrated.

He honestly didn't think he was that bad at talking to women.

Sure, it had taken him a long while to manage to sneak flirting into his interactions with Darcy, but she seemed oblivious to it and he wasn't sure it was his fault. What made him the most angry though was that he thought he knew why.

He was Captain America.

Sure she could pass it off like she was worried about him being her boss, but deep down they both knew she held the real power. Or at least he knew that. With a frown he stood where Natasha had left him and mentally played back, using his perfect memory, all his interactions with Darcy. And one common theme stuck out- self-deprecating jokes.

He used them as a defense mechanism himself because he had a difficult time remembering that he wasn't still the 5' 4" guy who couldn't pass for a hundred pounds soaking wet and who all the dames ignored. In short, they came from a place inside him that still felt like he was undesirable.

Now Darcy was beautiful, but he thought it just might be possible that her jokes came from a similar place. That she somehow didn't realize how attractive and perfect for him she was to the point where she just flat out didn't recognize his interest as anything more than friendly. And it definitely was much more than that.

"Fuck it," he muttered and spun on his heel quickly making his way back onto the elevator.

Subtle flirting clearly didn't work, so he was going to have to be more obvious.

Stalking back up to Darcy's open office door, he gave the door frame a quick, perfunctory knock before stepping into the room and shutting the door behind him much more forcefully than he had intended.

Darcy looked up, startled by the noise, and her expression quickly changed from fear to confusion.

"Honestly? You've been gone for like two minutes! What else could possibly have gone wrong already?!" She practically shrieked throwing her hands in the air. Steve stopped just in front of her as she continued, "I swear, if it was Clint I am going to take one of his exploding arrows and I am going to shove it-"

Steve didn't get to hear where she was doing to put the arrow, but he had a really good idea. And obviously he didn't care to confirm that suspicion because he cut Darcy off by bending down, bracing a hand on either arm of her chair, spinning her to face him, and pressing his lips to hers.

For a moment, he had the crushing sense of rejection and fear that he had read the entire situation wrong because Darcy froze up beneath him. Just as he started to pull back to apologize, Darcy let out a small sigh, awkwardly brought her arms up to wrap around his neck and pulled him closer. She softened into him, yielding to his kiss.

Throwing caution to the wind once more, Steve lightly brushed his tongue along her lips, sending up a mental prayer of thanks when they parted and allowed him access.

Needing to catch her breath after a few minutes of increasingly heated kissing, Darcy pulled back again. Steve watched as her eyes slowly opened and met his. Panting she opened her mouth, shut it again, and swallowed. He couldn't help but grin at her, adoring the way it made her eyes narrow as she snapped back into herself.

"You moved my seat," she accused, poking a finger at Steve's chest.

Steve looked down at where his hands were still on the armrest, flushing a little when he noticed that he had damaged them when he'd tightened his grip to keep his hands from wandering onto Darcy. In response he said, "I thought our first kiss would be less awkward if we were facing each other. You know, fewer possible angle issues."

He rubbed the back of his neck, uncomfortably aware of the fact that he'd turned bright red under Darcy's gaze.

Darcy waved her hand dismissively and said, "no, not that. Downstairs. I was only at the party for a hot minute, but it was long enough to see that someone had moved my seat."

"I was looking forward to _seeing you_ ," Steve explained, emphasizing the last two words. "I could not care less about some fancy ass party."

"You… Wait what? Steve please don't ever repeat that-"

"To anyone but you, got it," Steve told her. "I promise."

"Wait what?" Darcy repeated herself as realization slowly dawned in her eyes. "Were you trying to _date_ me?!"

"Still am, Darce," Steve replied using the affectionate nickname he usually saved for casual encounters outside of work.

"Oh," Darcy let out a breath. "I didn't get that."

It was Steve's turn to sigh as he stood all the way up then dropped his gaze back down to the feet. "Yeah. I think I may have been a little too subtle all those times we were flirting?"

"We were flirting?" Darcy's voice turned into a high pitched squeak again, and she was looking like she was going to start overthinking it. So Steve quickly resumed his previous position and kissed any confusion about his intentions and self-doubt out of her once and for all.

As best as she could tell when she came back into awareness, Darcy had gone full on barnacle at some point during the kiss and latched herself onto Steve. Thankfully she was pretty sure Steve hadn't minded if the hands he had on her ass holding her tight to his front were any indication.

Darcy cleared her throat and offered, "if you'd wanted to make your desire to date clear, you probably should have, you know, asked." After a moment of thought she tilted her head a little and added, "and maybe chosen something other than an event I had to help organize on a day where I'd had pretty much no sleep."

"Noted," Steve said crisply with a nod of his head, still easily holding her up. "I'll do better next time."

Darcy's hands slid from where they were resting on his shoulders along his neck then up to dig into his hair.

"Kissing me seems like a good tactic too though. Very direct."

"Results do seem favorable so far," Steve agreed leaning ever so slightly toward hers once more.

"Can't hurt to check again," Darcy reasoned before tugging his face into hers once more.

* * *

 **A/N:** That's really all for this fic now!


End file.
